


on a wednesday in a cafe, i watched love begin again

by comealongpixie



Category: Jane the Virgin (TV)
Genre: Based on a Taylor Swift Song, Based on a Tumblr Post, F/F, Fluff, Jane is in college, Pre-Canon, coffee shop-adjacent
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-30
Updated: 2017-11-30
Packaged: 2019-02-08 14:02:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12866058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/comealongpixie/pseuds/comealongpixie
Summary: prompt:“hey thanks for literally saving my life by pushing me out of the way of that car, but now you’re yelling at me bc i was reading and walking and you said i’m too cute to die."





	on a wednesday in a cafe, i watched love begin again

There’s a cafe that Petra likes to go to every morning. 

 

It took her a long time to feel safe enough to fall into any sort of habit. The first six months in America was just running-across states, and then cities, and then just here in Miami, apartment to apartment before finally, finally settling down. Sometimes she still feels the itch, that impulse to take her mother and their car and drive as far and as fast as they can and never stop. 

 

But running is exhausting, and she’ll probably never get enough space between herself and Milos to ever stop looking over her shoulder anyway. Time is it’s own sort of distance, though, and she can swap that in. Every new day she puts between them is another day she can stay where she is. 

 

She’s still marvelling at how comforting routine is. She may not know where she’s going in terms of The Bigger Picture, in terms of building a life in America. But she knows when she wakes up that she’s going to the cafe on the corner with the scones she likes. Even if she can’t afford the scones themselves, even if she can only afford a two-dollar coffee. It’s where she’s going. 

 

She usually likes to stay in the cafe to finish her coffee--sometimes she reads, or just people-watches--but today she leaves, coffee cup in hand, because her mother needs her for something. 

 

It’s fortuitous that she does, because she’s halfway down the block when she sees a pretty girl with her nose in a book, about to step directly into traffic. 

 

It’s not the kind of decision she’d make if she thought it through--she really doesn’t want to draw attention to herself--but she doesn’t think it through. Just acts on instinct, dropping everything to sprint the last few yards, grab the girl by the arm, and yank her back onto the sidewalk. 

 

Unfortunately, she pulls too hard. The girl falls back, and Petra goes with her. 

 

The driver that almost just committed vehicular manslaughter honks loudly as they pass, clearly annoyed, but Petra assumes they are not half so annoyed as she herself is. The girl is even prettier up close, with freckles across her nose and dark eyes wide in shock. 

 

It seems to take her a second to process what just happened. Petra begins to climb to her feet. 

 

“Oh my God, I am so sorry,” the girl says. “That was-I-” she’s on her knees, scrambling to gather her dropped book and papers as she speaks. She glances up. “Thank you, so much.”

 

Petra’s annoyed with her, but she also really wants this incident to be over, and despite her best efforts she’s not completely immune to the girl’s innocent puppy dog eyes, so she sighs and bends over to help her gather her things. 

 

“Do you make a habit of not watching where you’re going, or was it just my lucky day?”

 

“Sorry, I’m cramming for this test--”

 

“Did you not think to ‘cram’ last night?” Petra hands her her papers.

 

The girl stands up, looking annoyed now, her eyes going from apologetic to steely and stubborn. “I was helping my family with something,” she snaps. 

 

This is a fair excuse, but Petra’s stubborn, too. “Well, maybe budget your time better, because if I hadn’t been here you would’ve just died, and you’re too cute to die, and you  _ made me drop my coffee. _ ”

 

The girl looks confused. “Um...thank...you? I’m...sorry?”

 

Petra sighs, the will to be angry leaving her. She needs to get home soon, or her mother will be annoyed with her. “Well, just...keep a better eye out next time,” she says, and turns to go back for her newspaper (her purse, thankfully, has remained on her shoulder), only to see that it’s blown away. 

 

“Great,” she says, more to herself than to the mysterious bookworm. “My newspaper’s gone, too.”

 

She feels a tap on her shoulder, and turns around. 

 

“Hi,” the girl says. “I’m...sorry, for your coffee and newspaper and anything. Let me make it up to you.”

 

“I’m busy.”

 

“Well, that’s great! So am I!” She grins, and Petra melts a little. “Maybe we can meet tomorrow? I’ll buy you coffee and another newspaper.”

 

Petra considers this. “...Alright. This time tomorrow. That shop,” she says firmly, pointing to the one she just came from. 

 

The girl looks relieved. “Awesome! Can I get your phone?”

 

It takes Petra a moment to parse what she means--she’s fluent in English, but using and understanding it colloquially is a wholly different beast than learning it in the Ukraine--before digging in her purse and handing her phone over.  

 

The girl types quickly and then hands the phone back. “You can text me later with your info,” she says. “I’m sorry, I really gotta get going.”

 

“It’s fine,” Petra says, and then smiles a little, surprising the both of them. “Try not to walk into traffic again.”

 

Jane heads to the crosswalk this time, and shoots her a thumbs up before hitting the button. 

 

Petra studies her momentarily-she fidgets impatiently as she waits for the light to turn-before heading home, hurrying a little. 

 

She’s probably a hypocrite for doing it, but she checks her phone as soon as she’s out of sight of the girl, and searches her contacts for someone she doesn’t recognize. It’s not hard; she only has two other contacts, her mother and the man who brought her here, so it’s easy to spot the new one. 

 

_ Jane.  _

**Author's Note:**

> Literally nobody requested this, I just saw the prompt and thought it was cute and wanted to do something with it, and also wanted to write some Jetra, and then this happened. This is probably just gonna be 2 or 3 chapters or st. The title is from "Begin Again" by Taylor Swift.
> 
> Oh, and also, in the interest of full disclosure, I have no idea where I'm going with this.


End file.
